Beyond moose: Curating boreal biodiversity through Swedish slow TV and digital highlights

Technological mediation increasingly shapes how audiences encounter and interpret biodiversity. Digital nature programming, including livestreams and curated highlight formats, offers new opportunities for connection but also risks selective representations of ecological complexity. This study examines Den Stora Älgvandringen ( DSÄ ), a Swedish slow-TV nature broadcast centred on the moose migration, and its system of digitally curated höjdpunkter (‘highlights’). We analyse 1063 highlights from the 2023 and 2024 seasons, combining species identification, comparative biodiversity assessment and qualitative content analysis of highlight labels. The findings reveal a strongly skewed focus towards charismatic megafauna, particularly moose, while also documenting broader ecological dynamics within boreal riparian landscapes. The highlights selectively amplify spectacular, visually striking encounters while compressing natural temporal rhythms, contributing to an ‘Instagrammable’ portrayal of nature. While curated highlights offer accessible pathways for ecological engagement and potential contributions to citizen science, they may also reinforce romanticized wilderness narratives and contribute to the extinction of experience. We argue that slow-TV formats such as DSÄ simultaneously expand and constrain public understandings of biodiversity by shaping how ecological attention is organized through digital mediation, illustrating both the possibilities and tensions inherent in contemporary screen-based encounters with nature.